Liu Ao

Liu Ao

Liu Ao (1829-1887) was named Fengxiang, Yongshan, Lanzhou. Linxiang, Hunan Province (now wenjiachong, Jianjun village, Yunxi Township, Yunxi District), is a native of Hunan Province. He is well-known for his family education, full of poetry and books, and love to practice boxing and stick. He joined the army at the age of 24, and was employed by Zuo Zongtang as a "record room", which was highly appreciated by him. Later, he was granted the right to stay in Zhejiang. In 1864, he served as the prefect of Taizhou. During his nine years in office, he made great achievements. In 1874, he served as the alternate of Jiangsu Province. In 1878, he went to the northwest and was appointed a Taoist priest of Lanzhou. In 1881, he was transferred to Taiwan as a military officer. In April 1885, the Qing government appointed General Liu Mingchuan of Huai army as governor of Taiwan. Liu Mingchuan impeached Liu Ao with false words as soon as he arrived in Taiwan because of the opinions of the Hunan and Huai armies. Because of Zuo Zongtang's death, Li Hongzhang, the leader of the Huai army, was being put in a position of great importance. The Qing government was partial to his beliefs. Liu Ao was "dismissed with orders, and his native place had no family property." he first "planned to cut off the prison officer" and then "transferred to Heilongjiang Province." a year later, he died of illness in grief and indignation. After his death, the gentry of Taizhou set up a temple to offer sacrifices to him on the shore of the East Lake. Zhang Zhidong, governor of Huguang, wrote a praise for him, calling him "the essence of Junshan and the spirit of Xiangshui". During his stay in Taiwan, Liu Ao wrote three volumes of the book of returning to Taiwan.

Life of the characters

Growth experience

Liu Ao, whose name is Lanzhou, was born in Yueyang, Hunan Province. It is a good tradition in Xianghu area and one of the main reasons for the rise of Hunan people in modern times. During the Xianfeng Period, when the Taiping Army marched into Hunan and Hubei, he was born as a scholar. In order to protect the interests of his own class, he advocated regiment training in his hometown. He resisted everywhere and made a lot of achievements. He was appreciated by Luo Bingzhang, governor of Hunan Province (later Sichuan governor, Jianshi Dakai was in Dadu River), so he recommended the rank of county magistrate and embarked on his official career. In the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), Zuo Zongtang played the tune of governor of Zhejiang Province. Liu Ao led his own army and successively took part in the battles of Suian, Changshan, Quxian, Yuhang, Anji, Xiaofeng and other ten counties and towns to suppress the Taiping army. He was brave and good at fighting. He was strict in governing the army and won many battles. In June of the third year of tongzhi (1864), together with Yang Changrui (who was the governor of Zhejiang Province after Zuo Zongtang), he attacked the Ministry of Li Shixian in the area of Xiaofeng and Zhangcun in Jinhua, and won a decisive victory. From then on, Zhejiang was flat. Liu Ao's scenery is boundless. He was awarded the title of "Baodao member" and "Hualing" by the prefect of Taizhou. Zuo Zongtang had great trust in him. Zeng Shangshu said: "I have worked with him for many years, and I have good confidence. I can make up for his shortcomings in the whole army and people's affairs, and I can also look up to those who are kind and knowledgeable."

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rose, the eight banners, green camp and other regular troops of the Qing Dynasty were already rotten. The gentry of the six cities in Taizhou recovered their hometown by relying on the local league training to protect and save themselves, which is known as the "hometown of loyalty". However, the quality of the regiment training in these places is uneven, and even some of them have degenerated into bandits and robbers. They do harm to one side and complain, but the local government is unable to punish them. At the beginning of Liu Ao's departure, he pursued the strategy of using heavy allusions in troubled times. First, he secretly investigated the bandits according to their origins and found out their whereabouts. Then he suddenly led his soldiers in the middle of the night, carrying copper coins and smashing the bandits' nest. All the bandits such as Xu Dadu, he Shoufeng, Wang Kehe and Qiu Caiqing were wiped out. Later, he conspired with Sun Xi, the magistrate of Huangyan County, to encircle and annihilate hundreds of bandits in Qitian (according to the western part of Huangyan) and eliminate the local bandits in Taizhou. The old saying that "I pity the blood of Taizhou's six cities and dye Ao's head a little red" is a pure irony of the opposition, but it also shows the desperate spirit of Liu Zhifu and the bandits. As the biography of Taizhou Fu Zhi of the Republic of China says: "Ao is smart and capable, has the courage to do anything, although he uses power and skills, which is close to martial arts, but after the erosion of Taiwan's rice, his contribution to reconstruction is indispensable 。” In addition, he repaired the county city, thickened and raised the city, dredged the East Lake, built the martial arts hall, big and small schools, gunpowder and ordnance Bureau in the city, and suggested the governor to move Huang Yan's general army to Haimen, strengthened Taizhou's coastal defense, and sent guerrilla garrison to garrison according to the situation, which made Taizhou's military equipment awe inspiring.

To die

In September 1872, Liu Ao returned to serve his father. He was ordered to open up the vacancy with Taoist officials, and then he added Er pin Ding Dai. Before his departure, the Taizhou gentry reluctantly set up a memorial tablet for him, built a memorial hall at the Fu Xue Gong to commemorate his "Linhai Yixue Beiji", which is now moved to Zheng Guangwen Memorial Hall. In the early years of Guangxu, he was a Taoist officer in Lanzhou, Gansu Province. In 1880, he was stationed in Zhangjiakou under Zuo Zongtang. The next year, he went to Beijing to make a pilgrimage to Emperor Guangxu, and taught Taiwan soldiers in Fujian Province to prepare for the road and to supervise the administration. His strength lies in managing affairs and his weakness lies in being a man. When he was in Taiwan, he prospered schools, recruited and reclaimed land, dealt with unjust sentences, and rectified the salt, tea, coal and tax industries. In 1884, when France invaded Taiwan, Liu Ao actively prepared for war and held his position. After the fall of Keelung, the whole Taiwan was shocked. His words were eagerly taboo by those in power, and he was finally impeached and jailed by Luo Zhi. After the negotiation of peace between China and France, he was stationed in Heilongjiang. In 1886, he arrived at the garrison and died in December. The Taizhou gentry deplored the bad news. When we stroll along Laodong road in front of Taizhou hospital, we should not forget that there were many road names from north to south, such as hengjiexia, shiziqiao, santaifang lane, Xianxi street, wudaomiao, Yuandi temple and Madian. In the Republic of China, it was all called Liu Ao street, which is to commemorate Liu Ao, the magistrate who had the greatest achievements in defending Taiwan for more than 240 years. On May 17, 1888, the fourteenth year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, the dark clouds were falling down in Taizhou, the mountains were standing, and the wave of mourning struck people's hearts. The gentry from the six cities of Taiwan (Linhai, Huangyan, Taiping, Tiantai, Xianju, Ninghai) gathered in the East Lake of Linhai to hold the ceremony of the magistrate Liu Ao before the public sacrifice. Among them, Wang Fen's elegiac couplet, a famous historian, educator and Huang Yan Juren, is the most representative: "if it is beneficial, it will prosper; if it is harmful, it will be eliminated; if it is good, it will be rectified; if there is no evil, it will not be punished; if there is no good, it will not be obvious; the smoke and water of the Ming Lake will always be remembered." Furthermore, he wrote in the records of Liu Gong's ancestral hall, the former prefect of Taizhou: "in the 270 years before Ming Dynasty, there were more than 60 people guarding Taiwan, of whom Tan Xiangmin (Tan Lun), the famous general who fought against Japanese, was the most successful; in the 240 years after entering the state Dynasty, there were 50 or 60 people guarding Taiwan, of whom Liu Gong was the most successful." What are Liu Ao's achievements in the past 240 years? If you ask the local people today, they are almost at a loss. After all, it is the personnel of 150 years ago. Even the Taizhou Fu Zhi compiled by Yu Changlin is vague. I feel in Mr. Fang Xiaoru's words: "the forefathers' biography is the responsibility of the later dead." This paper gives a brief account of Liu Zhifu's people and affairs, hoping to be beneficial to today's people.

Personal achievement

survey

Liu Ao's most praiseworthy achievement is to promote culture and education. At that time, after the war in Taizhou, a hundred wastes were waiting to be revived, and the system of establishing politics attached the first importance to culture and education. He said: "if you want to achieve a long-term policy, you should develop the school, promote courtesy and yield to its essentials. Since Zheng Sihu of Tang Dynasty was a pious man, the Ministry of public administration of Zhu Wen of Song Dynasty was in Taiwan, and the village school was set up in Jianli society In the meantime, Zou Lu and Yasong are singing together I think of the book crown in Beifu, pursue weixingcuo, clear the source of the original, and teach first. " Since the sixth year of tongzhi (1867), he has taken several measures in the field of culture and education

Building Academies

In Linhai City, he raised money to restore the government school and county school, set up the Academy, restored Zhengxue and Donghu two academies, and established Guangwen Academy at the foot of Beigu mountain (later expanded into Santai academy, the predecessor of Taizhou middle school); he urged Linhai county to build Dongshan Academy (Haimen), Yinshan Academy (Haimen), Danhua Academy (Duqiao), Zunru Academy (Xiaozhi), Jiaojiang Academy (JIA) ）The Heqiao Academy (Taozhu) was rebuilt, Nanping Academy (Yongquan) was expanded, and funds for Binxian Academy (Dafen) were increased. In Huangyan, it restored its academy, built Yuandao Academy (Yuanqiao), Jinqing Academy (Jinqing), Nanqu Academy (Ningxi), Lingshi Academy (Toutuo), Xihua Academy (Wuyan), built Fanchuan Academy (Chengnan), Jiufeng Academy (Chengdong), changed Cuihua academy into Qingxian Academy (Chengnei), Dongshan Academy into Dongou Academy (Hongjia), and rebuilt Sixian Academy (Hongjia) ）。 In Taiping County (today's Wenling City), Fengshan Academy (Hengjian), Yiwen Academy (RuoHeng) and Dengyun Academy (Gaopu) were newly built; Yunyang Academy (Fengcheng) was rebuilt; Lishan Academy (Jiangyang) and Zongwen Academy (Hengfeng) were expanded; Heming Academy (in the city) was reorganized; funds for Dongyu Academy (Wenqiao) and Longshan Academy (Xinhe) were increased. In Ninghai, Gongtai Academy (Liang Huang), Zhuangshi lecture house (dafanyang), Tingshan Academy (beside the pavilion), Longshan Academy (Haiyou) and Xunzhi Academy (Kongxi ‰) were newly built; in Tiantai, Wenming Academy (in the city) was newly built. In Xianju, county schools were restored and funds for Anzhou Academy were increased. According to statistics, during his nine years in office, Governor Liu supervised the construction, reconstruction, expansion or rectification of 32 academies in all counties. In the late Qing Dynasty, there were 144 academies in Taizhou, accounting for 14% of the total number of 11 academies in Zhejiang Province.

Set up a private school

In order to enable the poor children to go to school, Liu Ao set up more than 100 private schools all over Taizhou. In Linhai Chengguan alone, there are six private schools: Dongcheng, Nancheng, Zhongcheng, Xicheng, Beicheng and Zhongjin; in Linhai villages, there are some famous private schools: Xiaozhi, Cangshan, Qifeng, Furong, Taozhu, pragmatism, enlightenment, Liuxian and so on. In order to ensure the teaching effect, we also regularly send people to tour to supervise and reward excellent students. He himself used to walk around the academies at night. As he said in his book the origin and development of Taiwan studies, "in the seven years since I was in charge of Taiwan, I have been responsible for promoting culture and education. In the days when I was in charge of the affairs of officials, those who were able to write learned their skills and were rewarded. In the first two subjects, there were more than 20 people, who were relieved."

Raise enough funds for running a school

Taizhou was poor in land, so it did not attach importance to merchants. After the war, finance was especially scarce. In order to solve the worries of the academies and private schools, Liu Ao drafted the Constitution in 1968, and donated Haimen salt to the academies and private schools